Contractors fear sequester's impact

Some of the biggest names in defense contracting aren’t just making a stink over what sequestration does to the Pentagon.

Players like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics have billions of dollars at stake in contracts with other government agencies also subject to across-the-board cuts, including at NASA and the Transportation and Homeland Security departments.

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That means the stakes are high for both sides of the ledger as Congress and the White House jockey to avert $1.2 trillion in cuts over a decade, set to go into effect in January if a deal isn’t reached.

The Aerospace Industries Association has been drawing most of the attention to the $500 billion in sequestration cuts awaiting Defense. But it’s also been trying to get a spotlight on the nondefense discretionary agencies, most recently with a report out Wednesday warning that an 8.2 percent cut to NASA’s budget would mean nearly 20,000 lost jobs in a dozen states, including Texas, California and Colorado.

“This is not something that we’re fabricating here or just worrying about like the Mayan calendar,” said Marion Blakey, AIA’s president and a former head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest defense contractor, has plenty to lose if cuts fall on the agencies that it does business with, including NASA, the Energy Department, Social Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Company spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said Lockheed officials have had several meetings with government leaders “to find a more thoughtful, balanced and effective solution.”

“We have a business presence in virtually every federal department or agency … and are equally concerned with the effects of across-the-board cuts to nondefense agency programs,” she said.

Boeing, with contracts at NASA, Department of Homeland Security and FAA, has also been “fairly vocal” in making its case against sequestration, said company spokesman Dan Beck. In September, the Chicago-based airplane manufacturer launched the website nocliff.com on sequestration, warning both of the defense cuts and how about $34 billion less in fiscal 2013 nondefense discretionary spending would “impact aerospace and the wider manufacturing and technology industry.”

“Investments in education, science and technology, and basic research and development fueled U.S. prosperity and pre-eminence in the 20th century,” the company said. “Drastic cuts in these investments will make it more difficult to sustain this economic and strategic prominence in the future.”

Raytheon, with contracts at Homeland Security, State, Justice, Energy, NASA and FAA, has been sending a message to Capitol Hill and the White House to “encourage our nation’s elected officials to reach a bipartisan solution that would not weaken national security and that would also support continued investment in innovation,” said company spokesman Jon Kasle.